Ignatieff's hypocritical pseudo-Liberal health-care critic

"Re: Liberal Defence of Public Health Care, letter to the editor, Jan. 14.

Ujjal Dosanjh, the federal Liberal health critic, gives a spirited defence of the health-care status quo, vowing that his party will strenuously protest against any attempt to introduce a parallel private system, which, he assures us, would rob the public system of doctors.

Mr. Dosanjh, prior to joining the federal Liberals, was formally the NDP premier of B.C. During his tenure, private surgical centres thrived and multiplied in B.C., having originally been authorized under a previous NDP regime. Currently there are over 20 private pay surgical and diagnostic facilities in the province.

Over the last eight years, our organization has referred thousands of Canadians from all provinces to these clinics, including a disproportionate number from Ottawa, where Mr. Dosanjh now hangs his hat. Far from robbing the public system of surgeons, the establishment of these private centres kept many surgeons in Canada.

Mr. Dosanjh appears to have forgotten his roots."*The same fear-mongering argument which Dosanjh trotted out was also used by the monopoly-defending-government - and was discredited - in Quebec's Chaoulli challenge.